The U.S. homeownership rate rose in the third quarter to match an almost five-year high set in the final three months of 2018, the Census Bureau reported on Tuesday.
The 64.8% share of American households that own their residences increased from 64.1% in the second quarter, the report said. The rate has been trending higher since reaching a five-decade bottom in 2016 after 10 million families lost homes to foreclosure in the wake of the financial crisis sparked by defaults on risky mortgages.
The homeownership rate for black Americans rose more than two percentage points to 42.7%, the highest since the end of 2018, from the record low set in the prior quarter.
The rate for Hispanic households was 47.8%, rising over a percentage point from 46.6% in the second quarter to reach the highest level since 2018’s first quarter when it was 48.4%, Census data showed.
White households had a homeownership rate of 73.4%, the highest since 2018’s fourth quarter when it was 73.6%.
The overall rate was highest in the Midwest, at 69%, followed by the South, at 66.2%, the Northeast, 61.7%, and the West, 60.6%.
